#eugene onegin

crucial to me that eugene onegin is very much a story about someone who has no genuine confidence in who he is. and in the first two acts he is like 20 years old at Most. he's young and stupid and arrogant about it. he cares deeply about the way he is seen by society and it is this perception of him, and his reaction to being perceived in a way he doesn't like (slash doesn't agree with fundamentally, even if he isn't sure what his fundamental self is yet) that drives him to action. and by the end he's not grown out of the apathy but he's lost a lot of his bite, and the revelation of genuine emotion brought on by re-meeting tatyana is a rebirth for him, BUT it is NOT a romantic redemption, because she leaves him and he still has to live with that reality, and live with the misery that is being perceived (truthfully or not) and judged. he's grown as a person yes but that does not then entitle him to the prize of the woman he wants and in fact reveals that he still has more growing to do as a person